Movie Review: “In Bruges”

Brendan Gleeson, Martin McDonagh & Colin Farrell (l to r) on the set of In Bruges, the best damn film I’ve seen in a very long time.

I had the privilege last night of viewing an advance screening of Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges and was quite literally blown away by it.  This buddy-crime dramedy is leagues better than any film I saw in 2007, including the overrated No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, and, at the moment, I have a hard time believing it won’t be my favorite of 2008. McDonagh, who looks disturbingly like Sting, has written a screenplay jam-packed with dazzling dialogue and intriguing, well-placed plot twists.  It’s also uproariously funny, providing bigger (and better) laughs than anything that’s spuzzed its way out of Judd Apatow’s Doo Doo Pee Pee Academy.

In addition, the casting is nothing short of brilliant. Previous to his turn in this film, the only thing that has impressed me about Colin Farrell is his ability to use the word “fuck” more than the word “the” in casual conversations. As Ray, he expertly weaves a thoroughly convincing amount of pathos into a newly-minted hired killer who, for the most part, lives on the edge a pin and laughs his ass off whenever he loses his balance. He’s the epicenter of some of the best gags in the film and he never disappoints.  A career-making performance. The doughy and loveable Brendan Gleeson plays Ray’s mentor Ken, a seasoned and unlikely assassin, who serves as the voice of reason amidst a chaotic and ever-changing situation that was supposed to be anything but.  Gleeson adds layers of soul to man who has killed several people without blinking an eye. The normally eloquent Ralph Fiennes surprises as their expletive-laced, don’t-fuck-with-me boss Harry, who’s performance has been compared to Ben Kingley’s Don Logan in Sexy Beast, but he slowly massages Harry into a more complex and nuanced character than Logan, just stopping short of the point where you don’t want to see him die in a really horrible way.* The rest of the cast is stellar as well, from “little person” Jordan Prentice, whose previous big role involved being stuffed into Howard the Duck’s costume, as the horse-tranquilizer-gobbling dwarf actor Jimmy, to Eric Godon, who plays Belgian antique and gun dealer Yuri, an odd man who turns the word “alcove” into one of the funniest utterances ever.

Hopefully this bloody and bombastic buddy film will find an audience, but the difficult title and the immensely clever but unconventional ending may hold it back.  Too bad, because In Bruges is just as good as anything in Tarantino’s oeuvre, including Pulp Fiction, which it’s more inventive than in several ways, and McDonagh’s craft richly deserves to be generously spread across as many needy eyes and ears as possible.  I’ll stop short of calling it a modern masterpiece, but there’s a little part of me that wants to pistol-whip myself into doing so.  It’s just that good.

* Since this review is getting some steady traffic from sites saying I’m giving away a plot point, I should clarify that I’m not saying that Harry dies in “a really horrible way,” just that I wanted him to. Maybe he dies, maybe he doesn’t. As I indicated, it’s a surprise ending.

[Limited US run begins on February 8th]

Links:

• Official site
  
• IMDB listing
  
• Trailer & clips (NY Times)
  

Posted by Kevin K. on 01/25/08 at 10:54 AM • Permalink

you are so cute when you are inspired!

K.’s cuteness aside, the lesson here is that just because the trailer makes IB look like Hudson Hawk on the cheap does mean that is so.

Yeah, I’m not particularly cute when I’m uninspired…

And ts, agree about the trailer not doing the film justice, but it reminded me more of Captain Ron.

Today I saw There Will Be Blood, kind of curious why you didn’t like it. Maybe I’m just coming down from the high of it still, but I thought it was pretty stellar, and was prepared to be uninspired.

Kind of get your problems with No Country for Old Men, I think, but I do like the Coen Brothers. They put it together pretty tightly, maybe too tightly. At the end of it, an old guy stood up and said, “Well that was a load of crap.” I saw it with Spazmo, who I’m, um, sort of dating. Yeah. Catch started Love.

I will make it a point to see this.

Someone with really bad judgment talked me into reading Atonement. WHY? WHY DID I DO THAT? UGH. Oh god, it’s so awful, the book is so awful I can’t tell you. I’m finishing it, I guess, because it’s a train wreck. I can’t imagine how much drek (sp?) they pulled into the movie.

Lady P!

Don’t get me wrong, I liked both films, but didn’t think they were as good as the reviewers were saying. I liked There Will Be Blood, but it was the most rushed three-hour-long film I’ve ever seen. I felt like it just jumped to the end and left me with a lot of questions as to what happened in between.  I thought Daniel Day Lewis did a fine job and he’ll most certainly get the Oscar, but it seemed like he just slightly reinvented his Gangs of New York role. I also think his character lurched into “vicious prick mode” without enough subtext.

What I liked about In Bruges is that there was a lot more nuance to the three main characters even though all of them were playing not-so-great guys. With even less screen time I felt I knew them a lot better than the main badasses in Blood and No Country. I’d be interested to see what others think about the film when it finally opens.